EXECUTIVE COACHING

Coaching is often described as 'a conversation with a purpose'.

As your coach, I will utilise my skills to help you address specific personal projects, development needs, or general conditions in your professional life. Other potential applications of coaching conversations include goal clarification, idea generation, prioritising and creating a plan of action.

I will ask questions, listen to what you're saying, and encourage you to reflect in order to gain different perspectives on your challenges. Some of these questions may sometimes push you outside of your comfort zone, but they will always be asked with positive intent, with your best interests in mind.

Coaching is about focusing on you as the key 'player' in the coaching partnership. The understanding is that you are the best person to clarify your goals, anticipate obstacles, and identify the path forward. Your coach will be there to create a safe and supportive environment to allow you to do this, in a way that allows you to take ownership and commit to next steps.

Occasionally, your coach may decide to introduce a variety of tools to help support the coaching process. These tools might include activities, psychometric profiles, or the use of models and metaphors.

A coach should never offer their personal advice - this marks a key distinction between coaching (where you are the expert) and mentoring (where the mentor is the expert). However, if a coaching session ever moves into mentoring territory, this will be clearly signposted and we will make a decision together about how best to proceed.

Coaching is primarily focused on the future - your future, to be precise. Whilst some other personal development approaches attribute value in looking at the past (relationships, experiences, emotions etc), this generally falls within the realms of counselling or therapy. If, in any coaching session, it appears that you may benefit from counselling or therapy instead of coaching/mentoring, I can make some recommendations of who you might approach for this.

Typically a single coaching session will last between 60-90 minutes, including time for a 5-10 minute debrief at the end of the session. Sometimes a session may take less time than expected, if a natural conclusion to the conversation is reached, and we both agree that it feels right to bring things to a close.

It’s unusual to have just one coaching session. Typically coaching is booked as a package of 6-12 sessions to be drawn-down over a specified course of time.

After a coaching session you may have a number of points that you agreed to work on, think about, or talk-over with someone else. Reviewing these points will form the basis for the start of your next coaching session, along with any other issues/areas that you want to explore.

Usually coaching is delivered in a series of 5-6 sessions, which might take place over the course of 6-12 months. You may find that you require coaching more/less-frequently depending on your needs at the time.

I work within the professional ethics and guidelines as designated by the International Coaching Federation (see www.coachfederation.org). All information about the coach/client relationship will remain strictly confidential except in very rare circumstances where decreed by law.

A formal coaching contract will be drawn-up before we begin a coaching partnership, which will also describe the roles/responsibilities of the coach, coaching client and (if appropriate) your organisation’s sponsor. With all three relationships the terms of privacy and confidentiality will be clearly described. For example - even if someone else is paying the fee for coaching, they will not have the right to hear what was discussed in the coaching environment, nor have any say as to what should be discussed. They may, however, want to know what you as the coaching client have decided to do as a result of the session(s) so that they can provide appropriate support and encouragement.

You can, at any point in a coaching session, declare your preference not to discuss something, by simply stating that you would rather not discuss this issue. I will respect this boundary and will not attempt to progress the conversation further along those lines.

If you wish for your coach to speak to someone outside of our interactions, then they will require written permission (letter or email) to do so. Exceptions to confidentiality would relate to circumstances where serious intent to harm yourself or others arises. Otherwise, you can be assured that all your information will be kept entirely confidential.

It can be helpful to record the audio from coaching sessions so that certain words/phrases/descriptions can be captured verbatim for the purpose of note-taking. If any coaching sessions are being recorded, you and your coach will be the only individuals who have access to the recordings, and they will be permanently deleted after 12 months.

Executive coaching packages typically start from £7200+VAT for a package of 6 sessions.

Additional costs may apply in cases where travel is required, or when psychometrics are used as part of the sessions.

Discounts and split payment terms are available in cases where multiple individuals from the same organisation are booking coaching packages together.

I also offer discounted rates for charitable organisations and not-for-profit enterprises.

We can schedule a complimentary, confidential exploratory call to see if you would benefit from my style of coaching. During the call we can discuss your objectives and talk about any other questions you may have. This call may also include a taster of what coaching looks/feels like so that you can get a sense of what it feels like to be coached.

I hold the ILM Level 7 coaching and mentoring certificate, and have logged over 200 hours of coaching practice, plus regular supervision. I have also completed accreditations in a range of psychometric tools which might be utilised to support your coaching journey.